There have been a number of patents granted on retaining devices for catheters, flexible tubes or leads which are inserted in incisions in the human body, the devices being of the flexible strip type usually with plastic foam encircling the tube and the tape, or strip, folded around the tube and tied or taped to the limb or body. Exemplary of such devices are U.S. Pat. No. 2,669,231 of Feb. 16, 1954 to Fisher, U.S. Pat. No. 3,726,280 of Apr. 10, 1973 to LeCount and U.S. Pat. No. 4,088,136 of May 9, 1978 to Hasslinger, et al. These anchoring devices must usually be untied, or unfastened, before the catheter or tube can be manipulated for advance or retraction and the fold over requirement makes them difficult to emplace.
It has also been proposed to provide a catheter clamp in the form of a disc having a block thereon, the block having a central hole for a trocar and an elongated open slit for receiving and locking a length of a catheter which has been inserted in the hole. Such a clamp block is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,568,679 to Reif of Mar. 9, 1971 and it is characterized by the fact that the catheter slot in the block is the locking device which locks the catheter at a desired location, when the semi-rigid material of the block closes around the catheter.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,853,130 to Sheridan of Dec. 10, 1974 a somewhat similar concept is disclosed, there being no locking block, or clamp, but the catheter being enclosed in a longitudinally split sheath which is shorter in length than the catheter. The open slit, or slot, is of diameter substantially equal to the diameter of the catheter. Thus, the catheter is normally locked against sliding movement in the sheath slot and while the ribs of the sheath can be pulled away from each other to strip the catheter and sheath away from each other, slidability is not achieved while the catheter is in the slot.